Texas Tech Holds Constitution Day Panel to Discuss U.S. Constitution and Immigration

In honor of the week when the United States Constitution was signed in 1787, panelists gathered to discuss immigration and the Constitution at Texas Tech.

The event, sponsored by the Texas Tech University School of Law and the Department of Political Science, ran Monday afternoon at the School of Law’s Lanier Auditorium.

Panelists at the event included David Strange, Texas Tech adjunct professor of law and immigration law specialist; Anna Law, DePaul University associate professor of political science and author of “The Immigration Battle in American Courts”; Arslan Umarov, an Uzbekistan native, recent U.S. citizen, Texas Tech School of Law alumnus and assistant director of the law school’s Center for Biodefense, Law, and Public Policy; and Timothy Nokken and Mark McKenzie, Texas Tech assistant professors of political science.

McKenzie discussed the significance of Constitution day, and why citizens should care about it.

“Promoting the Constitution around this time gives people a possibility to reflect on the constitution and think about what it means, because we can’t hold our government officials accountable if we don’t know the rules that they’re bound by,” McKenzie said.

The entire interview with McKenzie is available below.

Associate professor and panelist Anna O. Law recently authored “The Immigration Battle in American Courts”, and discussed immigration policy and the Constitution.

“The landscape is not balanced for immigrant litigants, and it’s quite tough for them to go through this maze by themselves,” Law said.

Cole Shooter's interview with Law is included in its entirety below as well.

The Constitution was signed on September 17th, 1787. Regulations to require federally funded schools to provide an educational program about the Constitution each year on the week of Constitution Day was enacted in 2005.